Why is “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some non-sexual partial nudity, many fights with punching and kicking and throws, several stabbings, several scenes of gunfire exchanges causing injuries and deaths, a deep water dive leading to a near drowning, a fight between two airplanes and leaving people plummeting toward the ground, many discussions of the end of the world and World War III, discussions of rogue AI, discussions of nuclear war, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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In what had been described as the last outing, the IMF team is back together and on the trail of a key that will stop a deadly AI entity from initiating a global nuclear war. With Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. [Running Time: 2:49]

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man and a woman lie together in a bed (no sex is implied). A woman walks toward a man and they stand closely to each other, with suggestive looks. Two men hug in greeting.
► A man wearing boxer briefs (we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs to the upper thighs) fights several other men (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man is shown shirtless and with his shirt open in several scenes revealing his bare chest, abdomen and back. A shirtless man (we see his bare chest and abdomen) sits in a shower while warm water sprays on his back and he warms up from having been in frigid water. A woman wears a low-cut tank top that reveals cleavage. A woman’s blouse hangs open to reveal cleavage.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man bites what he says is a cyanide tablet, he thrashes and foams at the mouth, falls back in a chair and during the commotion frees himself from handcuffs and fights guards in the room; a woman in the room fights with guards and is held with a knife to her throat until her assailant is shot in the back; we hear more fighting off-screen as a woman looks away and we see bodies later with one man pinned under a cabinet and another man with a large knife in his chest (blood is evident). A man fights several other men as flames ignite the building and smoke billows; the man punches and kicks several men, he holds one man on the floor by the leg and kicks him in the face, he presses a man’s face against a spinning mechanism and we see the man’s bloody face, the roof of the building collapses, and a woman is held around the throat and she falls unconscious. A man draws a gun and shoots toward another person in a crowded room; another person steps in the way of the bullet and is struck in the chest (we see the bullet hole and he dies), while other people shoot the first shooter and he is killed.
► A woman sits next to a man in a hospital room and we see that she is dead with blood dripping from her hand. Gunfire breaks out and a man is struck in the chest as he tries to dodge bullets (we see blood). Planes challenge each other midair and a man in one plane jumps out the back and into frigid water below; several divers surface around him and he is tasered in the neck and falls unconscious, and then he revives quaking from the cold. A diver moves through a sunken submarine and when its weight shifts and it rolls off the ledge it is resting on, missiles in a storage room fall and nearly pin him, and one lands on a hatch blocking it closed; the man removes his suit and gear to fit through a chute, the chute fills with water and he is pulled out into frigid water where he attempts to surface without a suit or tanks as he thrashes and then is still (he is revived later). A woman performs chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on an unconscious man and he revives. A man with a chest wound says that his lung is collapsing and he will suffocate; he instructs a woman how to cut his chest with a knife and insert a tube to relieve the collapsed lung (we see her pressing the knife into his chest and he groans, and we hear a suction sound when the tube is inserted).
► A man in a car chases another man, he is slammed in the side by another car and his car rolls several times; he exits and runs after the other car, then chases a plane and when he is unable to catch the plane, another plane speeds toward him on the runway, he clings to its landing gear, climbs onto a wing and punches the pilot; he rolls the plane dumping the pilot out (we see him falling toward the ground) and chases the other plane in an extended sequence through narrow and rocky passages; the man then flies under the other plane and boards that one, leaving his plane to plummet toward the ground, he punches the pilot and the plane dives, the pilot revives and tries to stab the other man, and the pilot spins the plane and tries to throw the other man off the plane; they each cling to seat belt straps and one man falls (we see blood splatter when his head slams into the tail); the plane catches fire and the other man falls, and deploys a parachute (the chute catches fire as he falls toward the ground).
► A man is chased and shot at in several scenes. A man is struck hard in the face. Police and prison guards fight using tasers and gunfire is exchanged while a prisoner in their custody gets a gun and shoots several guards. A man and woman fight and the woman is stabbed (we see blood). A man and a woman threaten two armed men and back them into a small room where one man is struck with a gun butt and the man and the woman are shot with tranquilizer darts; they wake up chained and we see torture implements on a tray. Flashbacks show several people being held at gunpoint, injured and dying. We see flashbacks to scenes of dead bodies with bloody wounds, jumping motorcycles, scaling shear walls, and gunfire exchanges. A man is locked in a cage with a bomb that we are told is a 6-megaton bomb and he tries to disarm it; another man runs through a tunnel as the bomb explodes and blows flames and debris through the tunnel after him and we understand that the first man dies in the blast. We hear about things that a man has done as we see a bomb explode, a room fill with gas, and the man removing masks that resemble other people. Fighter jets take off from an aircraft carrier. Several scenes show people trying to disable explosive devices as a timer counts down; they talk about the person working on the bomb not surviving.
► A man wearing a deep sea suit fills a chamber with water and leaves a vessel to dive to a great depth; when he opens the hatch we see another submarine right outside the hatch and he is thrown against it as it chases the sub he just came from, dodging the turbine. A diver enters a sunken vessel and finds bodies with frost and blood on their faces; we see flashbacks to numerous bodies floating in the frigid water after a crash. A man climbs into a container and puts on a mask, his hands and feet are clamped and bright lights flash in his eyes while a computer voice talks to him; he flinches and moans and when he comes out of the container he seems disoriented. A man is shown in a hospital bed and using oxygen. Numerous explosions flash as we see Earth from space as predictions of planetary destruction are discussed.
► There are several discussions of World War III. We understand that martial law has been implemented. Protestors chant, “End it now.” People talk about necessary decompression after deep dives and a man says that if you surface too quickly, your lungs will explode. People discuss global nuclear war and one country needing to make a sacrifice of one of its cities in “good faith.” There are many discussions of the annihilation of humankind that could be initiated by an AI entity. People talk about truth vanishing as we see images and content being altered. A woman talks about having lost someone she loved. People discuss the start of a “doomsday cult.”
► A tape self-destructs and we see smoke coming from the tape player. Several scenes show flashes of images of people suffering and the devastation of war. A man is accused of never following orders.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning LANGUAGE 2

 – 1 scatological term, 1 anatomical term, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (fanatics, mind games, paranoid, insane, bastard, cracker jack), exclamations (blew it, failed, poke the bear, bluffing), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. for God’s sake, God knows what, oh thank God, we see a Saint Christopher medal, Godspeed). | profanity glossary |

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man bites into what he says is a cyanide tablet. A woman drinks from a flask.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – AI, war, nuclear war, truth, manipulation of reality, cyberspace, patterns, fate, reason, panic, legend, destiny, doomsday vault, hope, strength, treason, Armageddon, diplomacy, corruption, regrets, Noah’s Ark, psychological warfare, political crises.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning MESSAGE

 – Our lives are the sum of our choices.